Dance music archivists Strut Records and Bill Brewster (DJHistory.com) have compiled a new retrospective of the dance music output of Factory Records.

FAC. DANCE is focussed on dancefloor-friendly 12″ mixes and rarities from the label’s early days, spanning skeletal, dubwise studio work from Martin Hannett and pioneering productions from New Order’s Bernard Sumner and A Certain Ratio’s Donald Johnson under their BeMusic and DoJo guises. There are contributions too from New York legends Arthur Baker and Mark Kamins, and a number of killer oddities – the schizoid funk of Blurt’s ‘Puppeteer’, the jazz-funk of Kalima and Swamp Children, the reggae of X-O-Dus’s ‘See Them A’Come’ (produced by Dennis Bovell).

The compilation, which is due out October 10 on 2xCD, 2xLP and digital, deliberately avoids the more overtly club-aimed music of Factory’s acid house years, choosing instead to celebrate the more commonly overlooked productions from 1980-87 that provided the blueprint.